Banking on Small Business: Microfinance in Contemporary Russia

by Gail Buyske

Overview

How do you prime the well of economic growth? First, put a negligible amount of money into exactly the right hands. Then, step back. A vibrant and rapidly expanding national economy needs an active small business sector, but small entrepreneurs need loans to expand their businesses. Microfinance also has potential to be an engine of economic growth, although this prospect has been overshadowed by its image as a tool for alleviating poverty. In Banking on Small Business, Gail Buyske analyzes three themes in economic development: the global growth of microfinance, banking sector development, and Russian entrepreneurship. These three themes intersect at KMB, the Russian Small Business Bank, where Buyske chaired the board of directors for six years. This book is in part an account of KMB's role in initiating great changes through a series of apparently small actions.

In reviewing Russian entrepreneurship and banking since the advent of perestroika in the mid-1990s, Buyske stresses that Russian entrepreneurship is more dynamic than usually perceived and that the historic lack of small-business and start-up finance was largely owing to the practices of the Russian banking sector rather than to any failing on the part of Russian entrepreneurs. Buyske's conclusions have important implications for policy worldwide; she is confident that a broad understanding of microfinance as a profitable, rather than a charitable, endeavor will contribute to the commercial involvement needed to maximize global microfinance growth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801445781
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	08/15/2007
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.94(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Gail Buyske is a development banking consultant who advises organizations such as the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and USAID. She is a non-executive director of several banks with operations in countries of the former Soviet Union.

Table of Contents

List of Tables     ix
Acknowledgments     xi
List of Acronyms and Note on Transliteration     xiii
Introduction     1
Microfinance: A Global Overview     11
The Growth of Russian Entrepreneurs     49
Russia's Financial Sector     101
KMB Bank, The Russian Small Business Credit Bank     160
Conclusion     199
Bibliography     203
Index     211

What People are Saying About This

Millard Long

The past twenty years in Russia has been a period of tumultuous economic change: perestroika in 1985, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the financial crisis in 1998-99, and the stunning economic recovery since 2000. Gail Buyske describes how during this time small business overcame obstacles to grow from practically zero to 40 percent of the economy. She shows how the banking system evolved from a single central bank to a diverse set of institutions, but one providing only limited services to small businesses. To fill that niche, EBRD helped found the Russian Small Business Credit Bank, KMB. From its inception in 1999 to its sale to Bank Intesa, an Italian bank, in 2005, Buyske chaired the board of directors of KMB. Buyske's book is full of information and insight on the evolution of small business and finance in Russia, seen with a practitioner's eye.

Juliet Johnson

In her clear, engaging introduction to microfinance, Gail Buyske makes a persuasive argument in favor of broadening the definition of microfinance to include all of those small businesspeople who operate primarily in the informal sector and thus lack access to traditional financing. Creating banks that focus on small business loans, she explains, can play an important role in financial sector development in emerging market economies.

Charles W. Calomiris

Gail Buyske is a convincing advocate for the view that microfinance is a highly adaptive and versatile vehicle for lending in developing countries. She challenges the commonly held notions that microfinance is useful only for poverty lending or only for very small loans to individuals. Buyske shows that in underdeveloped legal and financial systems, educated and skilled entrepreneurs without collateral can benefit hugely from access to microfinance. Even more compelling is her evidence that this source of finance can be provided profitably.

Timothy Frye

Banking on Small Business offers a novel perspective on the creation of a market economy in Russia. Gail Buyske, one of the foremost experts on the Russian banking system, draws on her experience as a professional banker, an academic, and a keen observer of Russia in this thoroughly enjoyable book.

Editorial Reviews

"Gail Buyske is a convincing advocate for the view that microfinance is a highly adaptive and versatile vehicle for lending in developing countries. She challenges the commonly held notions that microfinance is useful only for poverty lending or only for very small loans to individuals. Buyske shows that in underdeveloped legal and financial systems, educated and skilled entrepreneurs without collateral can benefit hugely from access to microfinance. Even more compelling is her evidence that this source of finance can be provided profitably."—Charles W. Calomiris, Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions, Columbia Business School

"The past twenty years in Russia has been a period of tumultuous economic change: perestroika in 1985, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the financial crisis in 1998-99, and the stunning economic recovery since 2000. Gail Buyske describes how during this time small business overcame obstacles to grow from practically zero to 40 percent of the economy. She shows how the banking system evolved from a single central bank to a diverse set of institutions, but one providing only limited services to small businesses. To fill that niche, EBRD helped found the Russian Small Business Credit Bank, KMB. From its inception in 1999 to its sale to Bank Intesa, an Italian bank, in 2005, Buyske chaired the board of directors of KMB. Buyske's book is full of information and insight on the evolution of small business and finance in Russia, seen with a practitioner's eye."—Millard Long, Former Director of the World Bank's Central European Office

"Banking on Small Business offers a novel perspective on the creation of a market economy in Russia. Gail Buyske, one of the foremost experts on the Russian banking system, draws on her experience as a professional banker, an academic, and a keen observer of Russia in this thoroughly enjoyable book."—Timothy Frye, Columbia University

"In her clear, engaging introduction to microfinance, Gail Buyske makes a persuasive argument in favor of broadening the definition of microfinance to include all of those small businesspeople who operate primarily in the informal sector and thus lack access to traditional financing. Creating banks that focus on small business loans, she explains, can play an important role in financial sector development in emerging market economies."—Juliet Johnson, McGill University

From the Publisher